InfoWorld writes that 2017 “presented a mixed bag of improvements to both long-established and newer programming languages.” An anonymous reader quotes their report:

Developers followed a soap opera over Java, with major disagreements over a modularization plan for standard Java and, in a surprising twist, Oracle washing its hands of the Java EE enterprise variant. Microsoft’s TypeScript, meanwhile, has increased in popularity by making life easier for developers looking for an alternative to JavaScript. Microsoft also launched Q#, a language for quantum computing…
In web development, developers received a lot of help building with JavaScript itself or with JavaScript alternatives. Among the tools released in 2017 were: Google’s Angular 5 JavaScript framework, released in November, featuring a build optimizer and supports progressive web apps and use of Material Design components… And React, the JavaScript UI library from Facebook, went to Version 16 in September, featuring a rewriting of the React core to boost responsiveness for complex applications…
TypeScript was not the only JavaScript alternative making waves this year. For web developers who would rather use Google’s Go (Golang) language instead of JavaScript, the beta Joy compiler introduced in December promises to allow cross-compilation. Another language that offers compilation to JavaScript — although it began on the JVM — is Kotlin, which has experienced rising fortunes this year. It was boosted considerably by Google endorsing it in May for building Android applications, which has been chiefly the domain of Java…

2017 also saw the release of the long-awaited C++ 17.

Another 2017 memory: Eric Raymond admitting that he hates C++, and predicting that Go (but not Rust) will eventually replace C — if not a new language like Cx.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – 2017: The Year in Programming Languages